International Power

International Power is an electricity generating company with interests in 45 power stations and over 33,000 megawatts (MW) of power generating capacity, located in 21 countries. In addition the company is active in: ­wholesale production of fresh water through seawater desalination; production and distribution of steam; district heating via cogeneration; a small but growing electricity retail business; open-cast coal mining; gas transportation and renewable energy.

History
In 1990 the Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB), responsible for generating and transmitting the bulk supply of electricity in England and Wales, was split into three generation companies: National Power, PowerGen, and Nuclear Electric, as well as a single high voltage transmission company: National Grid.

National Power inherited 46% of the CEGB's generation capacity, and now owns and manages 40 power stations in the UK with a total capacity of over 29,000 megawatts (MW). Within this portfolio National Power has plants that run on a number of different fuels, including coal, gas, and oil. It also includes National Wind Power Ltd, the largest UK wind farm management company.

In 1993 National Power began investment in overseas privatization programs, becoming a high priority for National Power and leading to National Power's demerger in October 2000 into two separate companies.

In 2000 the UK business Innogy Power was spun off, and National Power renamed International Power (the legal successor to National Power). The Company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange on 2 October 2000.

Worldwide Operations
International Power is a leading independent electricity generating company with 21,358MW (net) in operation and 978MW (net) under construction. International Power has power plants in operation or under construction in Australia, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Puerto Rico and Thailand.

International Power's Coal Fleet
As of June 2007 International Power had 6218MW of coal-fired generation capacity with a further 3500MW under construction.

Existing Coal-Fired power stations
International Power owns or partially owns include :
 * Coleto Creek Power Station in Texas which is a 600 megawatt plant which was commissioned in 1980
 * a 75% interest in the Rugeley Power Station in Rugeley, United Kingdom. It comprises two units and has an installed capacity of 1,050 megawatts;
 * a 100% interest in the Opatovice Power Station in the Czech Republic, a dual fired cal and gas-fired power station with an installed capacity of 585 megawatts;
 * a 31% interest in Paiton Power Station in Indonesia, a 1,365 megawatt coal-fired power station;
 * a 92% interest in the Hazelwood Power Station in Victoria, Australia, a 1,675 megawatt coal-fired power station;
 * a 70% interest in the Loy Yang B Power Station in Victoria, Australia, a 1,026 megawatt coal-fired power station; and
 * a 50% interest in the Tejo Energia Power Station(Pego) in Portugal, a 628 mega watt coal-fired power station.

Coal Fired Power Stations under development
International Power also has two coal-fired power stations currently being developed. These are:
 * the Paiton III power station in Indonesia; this is an 800 MW addition to the existing Paiton I power station and Paiton II power station; and
 * the Mmamabula power station, a 2700 MW power station in Botswana comprising three 900MW units.

Carbon Reduction Review and options
In June 2007, International Power's Andrew Sinclair outlined the company's carbon emissions reduction strategies to the annual meeting of the Coal Research Forum in the UK. Sinclair stated that the company's "Carbon Reduction Review" identified the key strategies as being:
 * "Biomass co-firing - immediate CO2 reductions, rapid implementation" such as the "commercial scale installation" undertaken at the Rugeley power station between 2003 and 2006 and a "pilot plant and small scale commercial" plant at the Hazelwood power station between 2005 and 2006;
 * "Cycle optimisation" projects which delivered "immediate CO2 reductions", and could be implemented in the short term were the "Hazelwood 2030" project involving "new turbines, flue gas heat recovery and coal drying" and, at the Rugeley power station, the installation of new high pressure turbines;
 * "dedicated biomass" which reduced carbon dioxide emissions but involved new generation plants were identified as being possible at the IPS Opatovice plant which would involve a 1000 MW circulating fluidized bed power station with "100% biomass capability" and "Biox" "small scale bio-fuel generating plant"; and
 * "post-combustion CO2 capture" comprising a 25 tonnes per day pilot plant at the Hazelwood power station and "investigating cryogenic separation of CO2 using LNG regasification facility integrated with CCGT".

Sinclair also noted that as the "34% owner of the ISAB IGCC" plant in Italy, which was based on "refinery residues rather than coal" the company was "gaining valuable operational data on IGCC plant.

Central to the company's strategy was making emissions cuts at the brown coal-fired Hazelwood power station. Sinclair noted that the power station was the oldest of the Latrobe Valley baseload power stations with the first 200MW unit commissioned in 1964 and that its greenhouse gas intensity was 1.549 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents per MWh sent out. Sinclair described the station as comprising "small, relatively inefficient, units (200MWE, 28% cycle efficiency LHV basis), requiring significant ongoing investment" and that there was a legislated requirement for new plants to emit no more than .8 tonnes of co2equivelent sent out. He also noted that "current clean coal technologies such as IGCC" are "not commercially proven for low-ranked coals (61-68% water total moisture content)".

He also noted that as part of the "Hazelwood 2030" plant, the company aimed to reduce the greenhouse intensity of Unit 1 to approximately 1.20 tonnes per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent per MWh sent out by retrofitting coal drying to the unit, increasing the cycle efficiency and obtaining an additional 15 MW of output from technical tweaks such as"improved condenser performance, reduced fouling and increasing fan margin". The company also planned on reducing the greenhouse intensity of Unit 2 by 15%, increasing cycle efficiency by 4.5% and increasing its output by 20 MW.

He also noted that "preparation for new baseload plant to commence in 2009/2010 (permitting, consortium & technology selection)". Slides included in his presentation flagged the development of three ultra super critical 800MW units with the first notionally being commissioned in 2016 and the second and third being commissioned in 2022 and 2028. The slide notes that "stages I & 2" of the existing plant "to potentially be decommissioned" in 2010 "depending on market, plant performance and life-cycle status". The new power stations, Sinclair stated, would enable emissions reductions of approximately 11 million tonnes per annum to be achieved if the new plants were commissioned and brown coal pre-drying was adopted by all Latrobe Valley power generators. Sinclair claimed that emissions cuts of a little over 24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents a year could be achieved with both new power units and carbon capture and storage storing 50% of the emissions by 2015-2017 and 80% by 2022 to 2026.

2009 Annual report
In its 2009 Annual Report, International Power stated that "environmental legislation is one of the key drivers of the long-term development of the electricity industry. Initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are expected to impose increasing commercial constraints on our ability to emit carbon dioxide (CO2). Although the majority of our fleet comprises modern gas-fired generation with relatively low CO2 emissions, and renewable generation with nil CO2 emissions, it is clear that there will be increasing constraints on our ability to use fossil fuels to generate power. The impact of carbon reduction measures has, to date, been most apparent at our European plants, where we are required to ensure that we have sufficient carbon credits to support our expected levels of generation, but carbon trading measures are also evolving in Australia and the US. Certain of our projects have change of law protection, which enables us to pass on any carbon costs to the offtaker. In such cases the economic impact of carbon risk is removed. In addition, we employ regulatory and legislative experts who will advocate the Company’s position during any proposed changes in environmental rules."

Affiliations

 * Member, Ash Development Association of Australia, a lobby group promoting the use of ash from coal-fired power stations in building materials and other uses.

Senior management

 * Philip Cox, Chief Executive Officer.
 * Tony Concannon, Executive Director, Australia

Contact details
International Power plc Senator House 85 Queen Victoria Street London EC4V 4DP Website: http://www.ipplc.com/

UK coal related articles

 * Advanced Power Technology Forum
 * British Coal Utilisation Research Association
 * Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform
 * UK Coal
 * Coal Authority (UK)
 * Department of Trade and Industry (UK)
 * Scottish Coal
 * British Geological Survey
 * European Union Large Combustion Plant Directive
 * United Kingdom and coal
 * Texas and coal
 * Very low sulphur coal
 * Coal

External resources

 * Andrew Sinclair, "International Power's CCS Initiatives", Presentation to the Coal Research Forum, June 20, 2007.